Chapter 1
Blythe's POV
It's fall break, and Mom and my sister Della Sinclair are visiting me at St. Julian's Academy.
The South Campus Arctic Biome is a landmark the Sinclair family funded years ago. It's filled with the rare arctic flowers Mom and Della have always loved. Every single time they visit, they have to go in.
That's when Kiley Croft, the girl Fletcher Waverly grew up with, pulls what she calls "a little prank." While no one's paying attention, she locks the door from the outside panel and pushes the temperature controls to maximum.
The people inside are trapped. They burn to death.
Kiley runs to Fletcher in tears, and instead of calling 911, he pulls her close and tells her:
"Hey. It's okay. It was an accident. This isn't on you."
He doesn't call me until the fire trucks show up.
"Blythe, the biome caught fire. Your mom and your sister are trapped inside."
I spin around.
Della is right next to me, sniffling and complaining about her cold. Mom is passing her tissues.
They're both completely fine.
Then who the hell is in there?
I run three red lights getting back to south campus.
From a distance, I can already see the smoke pouring into the sky.
The Arctic Biome, a multi-million-dollar fully sealed structure, is scorched black along the outer walls, the frame warped from the heat.
Sirens echo across campus. The air reeks of smoke and something worse.
Students are clustered nearby, whispering.
"Fire's out, but the people inside... I don't think they made it."
"I heard the door was locked from outside and the temperature controls went crazy. They were basically cooked alive."
"I saw Fletcher and some girl running from that direction right before it happened."
"She messed with something on the outside panel. Two people are dead. What the hell."
My legs are barely holding me up as I push through the crowd.
Two people. Two real human beings.
Then I see him.
Fletcher Waverly is standing just outside the police tape, white shirt spotless, with Kiley Croft pressed against his chest. The girl he always swore was "just a friend."
"Fletcher, I'm so scared. I swear I didn't mean for this to happen. I had no idea the door would lock like that..." Kiley is sobbing into his chest, tears running down her face.
Fletcher rubs her back, voice low and steady. "You're okay. I've got you. You're safe."
Something cold runs through me.
Two people just died in there. And my boyfriend is standing here comforting the person who killed them.
"Fletcher!" I push toward him, eyes burning. "What happened? Who was in there? How could my mom and my sister possibly be—"
He cuts me off, voice flat. "Blythe. Get it together. You're making a scene."
He steps in front of Kiley. "This isn't Kiley's fault. Your family was messing with equipment they had no business touching and set the whole thing off. Kiley barely touched the outside panel. She had no idea what it would do."
That biome is a fully sealed structure. Once it locks from the outside, there's no way out. Kiley didn't just lock the door. She started a fire. And he's calling that a mistake?
My family funded that building. You really think they didn't know how the equipment worked?
"Do you hear yourself right now?" My voice comes out shaking. "Two people are dead and you're standing here telling me it's their own fault?"
"If they hadn't gone in, none of this would've happened." He says it like it's the most obvious thing in the world, like I'm the unreasonable one. "Kiley is a wreck right now. Can you just, for once, not make everything about you? Or are you not done until you've completely destroyed her?"
The sheer absurdity of it all hits me at once.
This is the man I've spent three years loving. Three years funding.
He's lived off my family's money, used our name and connections to get himself elected student body president.
And now, with two people dead, he's standing here twisting the story to cover for the person who killed them.
The grief in my chest hardens into something else.
I don't think twice. I pull back and slap him across the face with everything I have.
His head snaps sideways. The crowd goes completely silent.
"What the hell is your problem?" He grabs his cheek, staring at me like I've lost my mind.
"That was for them." I can barely steady my voice. "I want the security footage. Right now. I want the police to see exactly what Kiley did out there and decide for themselves whether it was an accident."
I turn and start toward the security office.
"Don't you walk away from me." He grabs my wrist and yanks me back, dropping his voice close to my ear. "I already signed the liability waiver on your behalf. This was an accident, and that's exactly how it's going to stay. You go to the cops, you blow this up, you drag this school through the mud — and I promise you, you will regret it."
